to you about
now," he said, stifling a sigh, "it's about your friend. Please don't
misunderstand what I am going to say; nor that I interpose except from
necessity."

She turned her dark brown eyes in his direction, but her glance passed
abstractedly over his head into the garden.

"It's a matter perfectly well known to me--and, I fear, to all our
servants also--that somebody is making clandestine visits to our garden.
I would not trouble you before, until I ascertained the object of these
visits. It is quite plain to me now that Dona Rosita is that object, and
that communications are secretly carried on between her and some unknown
stranger. He has been here once or twice before; he was here again
yesterday. Ezekiel saw him and saw her."

"Together?" asked Mrs. Demorest, sharply.

"No; but it was evident that there was some understanding, and that some
communication passed between them."

"Well?" said Mrs. Demorest, with repressed impatience.

"It is equally evident, Joan, that this stranger is a man who does not
dare to approach your friend in her own house, nor more openly in this;
but who, with her connivance, uses us to carry on an intrigue which may
be perfectly innocent, but is certainly compromising to all concerned.
I am quite willing to believe that Dona Rosita is only romantic and
reckless, but that will not prevent her from becoming a dupe of some
rascal who dare not face us openly, and who certainly does not act as
her equal."

"Well, Rosita is no chicken, and you are not her guardian."

There was a vague heartlessness, more in her voice than in her words,
that touched him as her cold indifference to himself had never done,
and for an instant stung his crushed spirit to revolt. "No" he said,
sternly, "but I am her father's FRIEND, and I shall not allow his
daughter to be compromised under my roof."

Her eyes sprang up to meet his in hatred as promptly as they once had
met in love. "And since when, Richard Demorest, have you become so
particular?" she began, with dry asperity. "Since you lured ME from the
side of my wedded husband? Since you met ME clandestinely in trains and
made love to ME under an assumed name? Since you followed ME to my house
under the pretext of being my husband's friend, and forced me--yes,
forced me--to see you secretly under my mother's roof? Did you think of
compromising ME then? Did you think of ruining my reputation, of driving
my husband from his home in despair? Did